Dana Malcolm and Wilkie Arthur

Editorial Staff 

#TurksandCaicos, September 26, 2023 – Floyd Hall, former Deputy Premier of the Turks and Caicos and Clayton Green, former leader of the PNP party and attorney-at-law were on Monday September 25 found guilty of bribery and money laundering (respectively) in a dramatic and emotional delivery, by the Chief Justice, of the first verdicts from the SIPT trials; a road which has been both long and expensive.

The trial has cost Turks and Caicos taxpayers well over $100 million with $7.2 million budgeted this year alone.

The two other men charged in this phase of the trial, Jeffery Hall, a former government minister and Melbourne Wilson, an attorney were found not guilty on all counts.  Following the not guilty decisions in the judge-only trial, Hall and Wilson sat with their legal team and did not return to the courtroom after the break; finally free of all charges after a protracted case of alleged government corruption which started in 2009.

As for Floyd Hall and Clayton Greene, having been on bail throughout the trial, when they were found guilty the men were put back in police custody to apply for bail pending sentencing, scheduled for October 10.

“The court room was packed.  The CJ started with not guilty verdicts and that brought some outbursts, someone shouted ‘Yes’, another person shouted ‘Wow’ and another ‘Hallelujah’ but then the mood in the court shifted when she finally called two of the defendants as guilty of the charges.  The entire atmosphere of the court went completely silent and there was confusion because now, these people who had come in support of the four men, realised two were going home and two might go to jail,” said Arthur.

The court agreed to release Hall and Green on bail but with a significantly higher amount.

On the day of the verdict, Green’s bail shot up to $300,000 from the previously stated $175,000.  Less than 24 hours later, Floyd Hall was back before the judge; he was ordered to fork over $700,000 up from the previous $500,000.

Both men have since made bail.

The verdicts are the result of an investigation that began 14 years ago in August 2009 when the Turks and Caicos, a British overseas territory, got the announcement that a Special Investigator was hired to investigate suspicions of corruption at the highest level in the country; suspicions that emerged during a Commission of Inquiry into the Michael Misick Administration.

That 2009 COI, as it had become known, was preceded by a suspension of the TCI Constitution the same year and the creation of an interim administration to govern the country, a move that Washington Misick, current Premier, and others before him have described as “regressive”.

The UK had defended its decision citing a high probability of systemic corruption in the government and legislature of TCI and activating an avalanche of legislative changes in the name of ‘good governance.’

By 2011, when a new constitution was being instituted and elections were on the back burner, the British-appointed Special Investigation and Prosecution Team (SIPT) had found enough evidence to charge a suite of Politicians, Lawyers, Investors, and relatives of politicians with partaking in multi-million dollar schemes that defrauded the people of the Turks and Caicos; an abuse of power which led to abhorrent malfeasance, as expressed by the British.

In an announcement that sent shockwaves across the country some of the country’s top officials were slapped with charges including former Premier Micheal Misick; former Deputy Premier Floyd Basil Hall; former Minister McAllister Eugene Hanchell; former Minister Lillian Elaine Boyce; former Minister Jeffrey Cristoval Hall; Clayton Stanfield Greene; Thomas Chalmers Misick; Lisa Michelle Hall; Melbourne Arthur Wilson; Quinton Albert Hall; Norman Saunders Jnr; Richard Michael Padgett and Earlson McDonald Robinson.

It took another four years of hearings and appeals on several aspects of the case before the trial began but the defendants finally stepped before the courts in December 2015. Since then, there have been plea deals, charges dropped, and a split of the matter.

The original judge, now the late Justice Paul Harrison, passed away in February 2021 while the trial was on an unscheduled hiatus and preparing to resume due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

The Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos announced she would review the matter and determined that the trial would proceed, with her as the ‘judge and jury’ in the infamous case.  This time though, there would be two trials, new charges, and a vow to get the case done at a quicker pace.  The first new trial concluded in June 2022, and the verdict was read in a crammed courtroom on September 25th.

TCI residents have been waiting to hear what the courts will decide in regard to the allegations of widespread corruption that effectively wrenched control of the country away from the people.

With Hall and Green facing sentencing it closes one chapter.

Now residents turn their attention to the ongoing trial of Micheal Misick and his co-accused Chalmers Misick and McAllister Hanchell.